I B Sevener

Wonderful write up Outbound. Now, keep doing the drives but take your little ones with you so that they are properly raised regarding Sevens.

If you are anywhere near Denver and want to honor Skip's memory: CELEBRATION OF SKIP CANNON'S LIFE Please join us at one of Skip's favorite restaurants, to share stories and a toast to Skip. He passed away unexpectedly on 23 Oct 2024. ***Please RSVP by Friday, Nov 1 to mleatham49@gmail.com*** When: Sunday, 3 November 2-5pm Where: Pete's Central 1 Restaurant 300 South Pearl Street Denver, CO Here is a photo of my Point Seven on the back of Skip's trailer after he was kind enough to bring it back from a show we both attended so I wouldn't have to drive over and get it myself. What a neat memory for me

I talked to Skip a couple of times a month just to see what he was up to and there was always something new or planned for coming soon. The last time I spoke with him, a couple of weeks ago, he told me he had been feeling bad and had a doctor's appointment the next day. He was upbeat saying that would set him right and he could get back to car stuff. He had just sold his C8 ZR1 on BaT and was looking for where to spend the proceeds, so this comes as a surprise. While he had been in poor health for a long time, his sense of humor and his spirit were always full throttle. Godspeed Skip! Ross Robbins PS: That is me in the flat cap on the right in Croc's photo.

Here's a post from last year: https://usa7s.net/ips/topic/14400-an-amazing-trip-up-the-hill-pikes-peak-that-is/#comment-135708 I will be at the Fan Fest tonight and expect to see Colin there. He is an inspiration for certain, so I expect Croc in his CSR to tackle the mountain next year!!

Thanks for the responses guys...it's a lot better than being pilloried for pitching my book which I thought might happen. I know these are just silly stories that barely qualify as literature (He says hopefully) but generally put a smile on your face. I appreciate all the prior purchases too, Tom, Jim and John. Maybe I can supersize the fries next time.

As a slow learner when it comes to cars, my exploits generate stories so I have written yet another book about my adventures around the country in my varied cars. Some are Lotus cars and some are not, though they are all interesting. In this book, I also reminisce about some of the cars that passed through my hands and some of the adventures I have been blessed with by friends I have met through the cars, even though I wasn’t driving. The resulting stories will either make you really wish you were with me or very glad you were not. The book is called CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL CAR GUY and is available on Amazon.com for $12.95. Though it is a compact book, it does come with colored photos throughout this time so I have definitely classed it up since the first books. This is a great way to be a passenger with me in some of my interesting old cars for less than the cost of three gallons of gas in your own. If enough of you actually buy a book, I can probably take my wife out to dinner this month…if we go to McDonald’s. And if we order off the dollar menu…and share. https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Serial-Car-Ross-Robbins/dp/B0D29YZMYY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SUJGPL56YLI7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JXwMeXzy_hMg5wa6PZnMOpbqGkhbSmY1SVmwJ3q2B4MNldLO8fyAY5vXxYpea_OaTO0O68lLql8WyWn6YZJ46yQO2Fqb3wO6b1tDtZOY37t8EcXGbZX1qtOTQS-HMx76rwciP9jUP4aDMdWouDV1rKnCaBCMUcrma1LXwgs7cdcPazq9Zs15qDP1JuWVkaCxbeWhveT5J9R1SEvTK0R-kp7TaMl9sARLcJNbr24G_Gc.Gn9BHqtrmNapwxV_cSxFAfjEvzRU1lMCmOFoGlRd93I&dib_tag=se&keywords=confessions+of+a+serial+car+guy&qid=1715289229&sprefix=confessions+of+a+serial+car+guy%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1

Gosh, I'm blushing While I do take a lot of road trips (just got back from LOG 42 and head out tomorrow in my Elan for this: http://www.drivingforkids.com/route.html) I don't own the Seven anymore. My son Josh, (Yes CBuff, there is definitely a connection!) is her steward now as I content myself with the more luxurious Elan. I do miss her though and the trips I took with her are the reason I have my screen name IBSevener which stands for Iron Butt. That little 84 horsepower workhorse has been with me from coast to coast and border to border with seven (yes!) trips of over a thousand miles each. By the way I hope you are enjoying my books...everything in them actually happened! And, with all due respect Scotticus, I had hoped the takeaway from my little piece was to just GO. There I was in the remotest place imaginable with a car most folks have never even seen, and I did fine. Just GO! Besides, the reason I don’t take any other spares is simple…it is never the part you have with you that fails. All one does when taking spares is to carry extra weight and I don’t need any extra weight. The corollary to the spares law is that taking spares implies a lack of faith and the car knows this. “Aha,” the fates cry, “this faithless traveler deserves to feel our contempt, and we shall smite him!” The flip side to spare parts is that a breakdown occurs within any part you do NOT have with you, but you can usually limp along to a repair shop. My feeling is, why tempt the fates? So, I go and just carry the two most important tools any Seven driver can have: A cell phone and a credit card with ample limit. Thanks to you for the shout out and compliment John. The reason I haven't been on here for quite a while is that I don't think I have anything to add. It's all in Josh's hands. Cheers, Ross "Iron Butt" Robbins

I’m local to Pike’s Peak so I showed up at Tech day where one can view all the cars competing. I came upon this guy thinking he had a Caterham, but it was really a glorified Lotus Seven clone called a Dax. That’s when I met Duncan Cowper who had come all the way from the UK to run the Peak on a shoestring budget. He and his mate who was his only crew, borrowed a truck and trailer to get the car from Denver International Airport and get it down to tech where he passed with no problem. Then I saw him again down at Pueblo Motorsport Park at the vintage races where my friends were competing with their S2 Sevens. I asked him what his goal for the mountain was, knowing that it is mighty intimidating to those of us who have been up it dozens of times at 30-40 mile per hour and to be competitive one must go much, much faster. He said he would like to make it to the top (only about 80-90% do) and if he were really lucky, break 12 minutes which would put him in the top 50 of the 66 cars entered. His Hayabusa with massive turbo powered Dax weighed in at about 1,450 pounds and had some 440 horsepower. Here is a link to a Jalopnik bit which shows many of the cars, their time and some of the beauty of the mountain and how hard it is to tame: https://jalopnik.com/views-from-the-2023-pikes-peak-international-hill-climb-1850581361 Well as you may have now discovered if you viewed all those slides, Duncan did much better than his wildest dream must have been. He not only made it to the top, 14,115 feet above sea level but what is even more impressive is drove, 12th fastest up the hill out of 66 cars at 9:57.072 which is just amazing!! It means he drove that mountain at an average speed of nearly 75 miles an hour. Let that sink in with the understanding that there are 156 turns, many of them hairpin turns. Not too many years ago, a time of 9:57 would have won the event and made him “King of the Mountain”. He should be very, very proud! Here is the video of his run…watch how hard he enters the corners and how he is on the power all the way up:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oetk2IP63hY His story of coming over with sheer grit and a homebuilt car was his quest and was much like the story of Burt Munro in the “World’s Fastest Indian.” He proved that a dream can not only come true but be even better than the dream…It would make a great movie.

Here is a comparison article I wrote back in 2008 that reaches roughly the same conclusion: Seven Heaven Over 50 years ago, Colin Chapman, ostensibly with a push from Hazel, gave us the Lotus Seven. After four editions of the idea, Chapman in 1973 had no further use for the thing so he sold the rights to Graham Nearn of Caterham who went back to the S3 version and nurtured it until its new owners, led by Ansar Ali, took it over in 2005. It seemed a fitting idea to take the latest Caterham, the Superlight R 400 and compare it to my 1968 Lotus Seven S3 to see where the similarities and differences were, separated by forty years of constant development. Today I made seven discoveries about this fascinating throwaway idea that Chapman had no use for, now brought to its fullest fruition. It is less kit car and all of a piece. Until the Esprit, Lotus had a history of creating new ideas that never got fully developed, as the works was always onto the next new thing. Caterham, on the other hand has taken a page from Porsche and finessed and fettled for 35 years on the same theme. Their Superlight R400 is absolutely true to the DNA and character of the early Seven, but bursting at the seams with improvements. There is nothing on the R400 that is not required for two people to go have fun. It is still a dual purpose machine which will be as at home on the track as on a twisty two lane road. And it still catches my eye. Other folk’s eyes too. The looks Ben Wofford and I got on a nice warm March day were priceless –so many different versions of the double take that I stopped counting. Or maybe it was the grins on our faces as we zipped through traffic on the way to the foothill canyon we were planning on strafing. It is faster, way faster. At a comfortable lope, in other words about 50% faster that the traffic norms, the R 400 doesn’t seem that quick. This is a reflection on how good the original S3 is rather than panning the R 400. But when I had the chance to run up a freeway on ramp, I got it in spades…this thing is faster than a crotch rocket! I caught one of those up the ramp that wouldn’t get out of my way. OK, maybe he wasn’t aware that it was a contest, but I still blew by him; that never would have happened with my S-3. The factory spec is 210 BHP for 0-60 in 3.8 sec. if you hit the rev limiter on each shift. And it keeps on pulling, too. While 90 is a tough maximum to reach in the S-3, the R 400 has a factory top speed of 140 which I have no reason to doubt. I briefly touched an indicated 100 and it was still pulling strongly. It is way cool to dust off a Corvette or Porsche with ease! It rides better, way better. While the old bum is less sensitive to rotational input than it used to be, it is far more sensitive to comfort. This car has a deDion rear suspension that is far more forgiving over frost heaves and ruts. It’s actually smooth! Ben was following in my car and as I rounded a very fast bend with a lateral bump in the middle, I thought “I would have jumped sideways six inches in my car over that.” So I looked behind me and sure enough the S-3 took a sideways leap that required a bit of opposite lock from Ben. A day at the track will leave you wanting more instead of wanting ibuprofen. It is precise and more direct. I rode once with a stunt pilot who could roll his plane in 45 degree increments with precision until he completed a full 360. I feel the same way about the R 400. It just changes direction NOW. There is none of the loosey goosey rubber bushing or chassis flex that the S-3 displays. If I put wider low profile tires on my Seven S-3 it still wouldn’t deliver the absolute grip or direct feel the R 400 displays. This precision is an enormous confidence builder when canyon carving as we did. It corners better with less bump steer. Because the steering is so fast, Ben says he has to remind those who have not been in a Seven before to feed in steering change carefully. Of course I have tens of thousands of miles in my S-3, so I was just cocky enough to have too much input into the first real turn. The good news is that the car is easy to modulate and doesn’t get upset by roughness and bumps, and, of course, sticks like flypaper. It makes even me look good. It has the same cockpit and footwell feel. One thing hasn’t changed though; the footwell still requires racing ballet shoes or sox. There is just enough room to heel and toe the pedals if you have size 10 feet or smaller. Luckily, I do. But I don’t have the slim hips that fit the R 400 carbon fiber seat. The phrase 10 pounds in a five pound bag, comes to mind. Once ensconced however, I was located so well it was easy to feel like I was in a race car. All good quick cars keep the driver’s trunk well located so the driving becomes the focus. The absence of the seat form makes the bare padding of the S-3 a bit more accommodating, just a bit less supportive. Here is where the DNA is most obvious to the driver. It has bug eyes. The look of the two cars side by side reveals the most obvious difference, the new headlight height requirements. (Say that fast three times!) If this bugs you like it does me, Ben says that an individual can solve the problem with a different bracket although the car will need to be registered with full compliance. Since this is primarily a daytime use vehicle, I guess I would endorse that very enlightened, illuminated approach. So, what is the verdict? Firstly, I must admit to an extreme bias toward the simple dynamic elegance of the original. Having said that, it seems the lads at Caterham have kept the best and updated the rest. It is amazing enough that this 50 year old design can post the numbers that it does, yet what is more amazing is that it is just as fun to drive at a more sedate pace. Then, when they least suspect it, Superlight R 400 jumps out of the phone booth, cape flying, and leaps tall Porsches in a couple of gears. As for me, I’d have to save it for the track and I wouldn’t license it for the street. I need my driver’s license to get to work, the bus service stinks out here and I’d lose it within weeks if I had this car.

2014 Caterham Roadsport 140 is now SOLD

SOLD to a 77 year young man who will be DRIVING it home from CO to CA. I think this may be part of a trend of 77 year old guys driving cross country!!

Price Reduced to $36,000 Please give either me or Josh at Rocky Mountain Caterham a call. This is a great car and now that the Sigma engines will not be available, a more desirable car than ever!

Interesting back story on the owner of this Seven: His daughter (who is now handling his affairs) sent us this letter with the note: "Look what I found going through his stuff today . His interest in and pricing from Lotus Caribbean in 1967. He wasn’t lying when he told me he’s wanted one for 50 years !"

Kris has sold her Dad's home and the Seven now needs a new garage so the motivation to see it sold is high. This is a wonderful car that RMC has inspected and feels very good about, so if you are at all interested give me a call at (3o3) 923-8I38 or send an email to http://info@rockymountaincaterham.com and we will give you all the info you will need. This really is a great car folks!!!

Ian: Standard type 9 ratios, yep, so short first gear.